News Items.

Colonist, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7680, 12 July 1893, Page 4

News Items.

(Fbom our latest Exchanges.) Advices from California Bt ate that Mr W. 08. Macdonough, the owner o? Ormonde, intends to advance 250 000 dollars towards the formation of a raoeoourse. The most remarkable canal in tbe world is the one between Wor3ley and St. Helens, in the north of England. It is sixteen milea long, and nnderground from end to end. In Lanoaßhire the coal mines are very extensive, half the country beicg undermined. Many year 9 ago the managers of the Dake of Bridgewater's estates thought they could cave" monsy by transporting the coal underground instead of on the surface j therefore the oanal wag constructed and tbe mines connected and drained at the same time. Ordinary canal boats are used, the power being furnished by men. The tunnel aroh over the canal is provided with croBS-pieoes, and the men who do the work of propulsion lie on their backs on the loads of coal, and push with their feet against the cross-bars of the roof. A teacher asked ft girl how many bones there were in her body, and her answer was 250, *' Wrong ; there are only 249," said the teaoher. " Yes'm, but I swallowed a fi h bone to-day." The two sides cf the face are never alike. A German biologist cays that the eyes are out of line in two persons out of five ; one eye ia stronger than the other in seven out of tea, and the right ear is generally higher than the left. 11 1 know lam a perfect bear in tny manners." said a young farmer to his sweetheart. " No, indeed you are not, John ; you have never hugged me yet. You are more sheep than bear. The Queen and her family (says a London exchange) are inordinate meat-eaters, a fact to which most of their disorders are attributable. Miss Jennie Young, an- American lady, who owns extensive salt deposits in several parts of Mexico, is on her way to England, not with the object of marrying an English nobleman, but to promote emigration to her estates. Miss Jennie, it appears, has obtaiDed large grants of land from the Mexican Government, and on these she wishes to settle several thousand English families. Bbisbane ' Worker ' : — Forty- three people own land valued at £53,000 each and upwards in South Australia. Twenty-four landowners in that mono-polist-ridden colony own over £100,000 worth of land each, A gentleman who has recently come into a fortune and desires to "go the pace" and "get into the right set" inserts the following remarkable advertisement in the London c Standard ' — A gentleman of culture and means, who has lately led a somewhat solitary life, ia now desirous of entertaining young and bright society at dinners, theatres, races, picnics, etc. ; strict confidence and liberality may b 9 relied upon. Intoxicating liquors have been made from the sap of the birch, the willow, the poplar, and the sycamore. Four thousand pounds is mentioned as the sum paid by Mr Oharnside for Zalinski. Miss Kate Marsden, the "Leper's Friend " (?) has a rival in a n6w leper prophet that has arisen in tie shape of a Yankee woman who is going on a misiion to the •' nnclean " at Molokai. Her name is Bludder. That name alone should break np any mission. A London •« skin beautifier," with a large connection among freckled women, reports that he was recently visited by a lady who sat down peacefully in his sanctum and stated that her legs were too short in proportion to her body. She desire 3to have 11 something done to them," &nd when he told her that he had no recipe for lengthening legs her surprise was almost too great for words. No British sovereign has voted a Parliamentary Bill dnriog tbe past 185. years. Stones from the pyramids of Memphis have been taken to Cairo and ÜBed for building houses. Centubies ago the color of a bat or cap had its significance. Cardinals first began to wear red hats in 1253, In Italy, for ages, the members of the Hebrew race were known by the yellow caps they wore, it being compulsory for them to wear them. Thb Turkish Government haß issued an edict prohibiting army officers below the rank of major from having more than one wife. Thebe appears to be something like a famine in Chicago. Here are a few of the prices for refreshments stated by a recent American newspaper to be in vogue at the World's Fair. A ham eandwioh (American ham sandwiches possess the same powers of resistance and durability aB will be found in an English shooting boot) costs 50 cents (2s) ; the use of a plate to put it on costs 15 cents (TJd). This charge is j no doubt owing to the long time taken in masticating it. A gla3S of lager costs 50 cents (2a), unless the price is specially arranged before the beer is consumed. Those who don't drink beer can have a glass of ginger ale for 30 cents (la 3d). A dinner, consisting of one kind of meat, one vegetable, coffee, and a bit of dessert, can behad on payment of 3 dols (12s). In most cases, adds thi3 paper, the food is not fit for a starving tramp to eat. Every other article- ot refreshment is sold on a similar scale of extortion, and apnears to be equally inferior, f GADtdtTC'S COCOA. • QMQ higher desteO*^? zzSwW

| The late Dake of Sutherland made and signed 92 wills. < Mr F. 0.; Fulton, of Napier, who Went Home by the Rimntaka, writes ip tha ' Hawke's Bay Herald ' thai the Sasssge through the Strait, of Magelm is worth going ; round the world to aW : : ;Y«- ■■-,;, A ... ■ P4peb is now used in Germany for a new kind of Btooking, supposed to have various hygienic advantages, among others that of keeping off colds. JLveby gem known to the lapidary has been found in the United S'atea of America, To explore Africa in a baloon is the project of two Frenoh aeronauts. In Ametioa electric tramways have displaced thirty thousand horses. In tbe Island of Ceylon 760,000 acres are devoted to the cultivation of oocoanuta and 40,500 acres to cinna- 1 mon. Men attending the pans in salt works are never known to have cholera, smallpox, scarlet fever, or influenza. The insanity of King Otto of Bavaria has assumed a somewhat alarming cbaraottr. He refuges all food and drink. BY SPECIAL APPOINTMENT. Peaks' Soap, Makers to her Mojest the Queen The banking institutions of the Colony (says • Lytcelton Times ') paid £13,492 under the Property tax, whilst under the Land and Income tax they escape with the payment of £10,184. The fire at Bishop's Court, in the Isla of Man, recently reporieci, not only destroyed a great part of the historio building, bat many valuable relics and important papers, among the later being eom9 of the MBS. written by Bishop Vowler Short, who was appointed to the see half a century ago. Maty Gatdiner, the housemaid who jumped f omner bedroom window during the fire ard was seriously injured, died a day or two afterwards. The total number of men employed by the Railway Commissioners in their workshops and maintenance depots is 607 men and 136 apprentices. Auckland has 63 men and 21 apprentices. A profit of £100 was made oa the special trip of the Premier to open the Greymouth-Hokitika railway^